Mike Carroll: “I didn’t think it was productive to stay at Embarcadero”

November 25, 2013by Seb Carayol

Just one question, out of the 14-page Mike Carroll interview in the FTC book…

When did Embarcadero become a hangout, and not just a spot you zip by?

Mike Carroll: I can’t remember if it was before they skated it in Animal Chin or not, or if Gonz had ollied the gap yet. Scotty Thompson was part of the crew, and at one point we were skating around and we went to Embarcadero.

Scotty started to stay there all the time. I remember one time, we were at Carl’s Jr. and I was like, ‘Dude, what are you doing? Why are you staying at Embarcadero all the time? Come skate with us.’ I wasn’t trying to be a kook. I didn’t think it was productive to stay at Embarcadero.

Then, it was maybe 1989, I stayed in San Diego that whole summer, because I ‘ran away from home,’ if you want to call it that. I came back, and I remember Greg writing a few times on the fridge, “Hey we gonna be at EMB, see you down there.”

After coming back, it was Embarcadero every day. That spot made everybody get really good. When I left, I don’t even think Henry was sponsored. He was good but he was posing a lot of shit, and when I got back he was landing everything. Henry was doing so much crazy shit I had never seen before, it was insane. I left for a couple months and came back to this whole new world. I was like, “What the fuck just happened?”